How to access shared folder as a guest in recent macOS versions?

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Level 1

5 points

How to access shared folder as a guest in recent macOS versions?

I've already configured the options for guest folder sharing as follows.

Enabled 'Allow guest users to connect to shared folders' option under Users & Groups settings for the Guest User.
Enabled 'Allow guest users' option in the Advanced Options for the shared folder.

Despite these settings, I often cannot connect to the server at all. Occasionally, I see 'nobody' folder or 'TARGET_IP is empty' message.

I don’t believe Apple has blocked guest access entirely, and I’ve seen other people asking similar questions like me, but it didn’t provide any helpful solutions.

Is there any updated information?

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 14.7

Posted on Jan 22, 2025 6:26 PM

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Answer 1

genians Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 30, 2025 11:31 PM in response to Barney-15E

Thanks for your comment.

I've tried enabling the allow full disk access option, but it didnt help me.

What I want to do is connect to a specific server(smb) for file sharing as a Guest, just like in the image I uploaded.

I've tested this not only on Sequoia, but also Sonoma and Catalina.

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

118,520 points

Jan 23, 2025 3:33 AM in response to genians

The Guest user and file sharing “guest” access are not related.

File Sharing is not functioning correctly on Sequoia. I don’t know if that is related to your issue.

There is a setting in File Sharing to allow full disk access. That has to be enabled for any user to access the shares, but it gives them access to everything. If it is off, users can see the shares, but cannot open them.

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Answer 3

genians Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 30, 2025 11:36 PM in response to genians

FYI, I could find these on Console.

sharingd           ### NetAuthSysAgent:1220 lacks "com.apple.sharing.Client" entitlement to use AppleIDAuth
NetAuthSysAgent    SFAppleIDClientCopyMyAppleID failed with error -6768

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